Coming off a first-round bye in the Socal Regional Basketball Playoff, the Cerritos College basketball team won their second-round match on Feb. 28 against Ventura college in a comeback victory by a score of 77-75.
With only seconds remaining in the overtime period, sophomore point guard No.1, Jalen Washington, hits a fadeaway jump shot over a Ventura defender to give the Falcons the buzzer-beater win.
With the crowd going crazy and the stands shaking, Falcon fans watched their team make a dogpile on top of Washington as they celebrated their victory and his game-winning shot on the court.
“There’s a decision to make whether you call time out and try to set something up or you just flow with it and you know I’m just going to go with the flow,” Cerritos head coach Russ May said when describing his thoughts on the last play.
May’s decision to let his team create a play paid off.
Cerritos never lost hope when trailing Ventura by 17 points with nine minutes left in the game.
Freshman forward No. 20, Dorian Harris, was a huge contributor in the Falcons’ comeback as he nailed two back to back three-point shots to tie the game up at 64.
“I was just going to let them fly and luckily they went in and that was a crucial part of the game which saved us,” Harris said.
Harris had eleven points in the game with most of those points coming in the second half.
At the start of overtime, Cerritos quickly put points on the board thanks to freshman point guard No.12, Joshua Harrison, who made a couple of close jump shots.
However, that did not stop the Pirates from fighting back and tying the game once again at 75 points each.
After a missed shot from Ventura with about 13 seconds left in overtime, Cerritos players looked for a timeout from May but instead, he told them to play it out.
That’s when Washington took matters into his own hands and became the star of the game.
“Time was running down, I got to the mid-range which is my spot so I just took it and it went in,” Washington explained.
Washington had 14 points in the game coming in second behind teammate Joshua Belvin who led the team with 17 points.
“We’re fortunate tonight, Ventura was outstanding. I knew it would be a tight ball game and we’re excited to play again,” May said.
Cerritos will go on the road to play the number one seeded team Santiago Canyon College on their campus Saturday, March 7 at 7 p.m.
